Pulse-combustion residential water heater. Final report, November 1980-July 1986

Technical Report · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

OSTI ID:6611642

Thrasher, W H

A prototype high-efficiency gas-fired residential water heater based on the pulse combustion principle was fabricated. The water heater has a 40-gallon storage vessel, operates at an input rate of 42,500 Btu/hr, has a DOE recovery efficiency of 90% and a calculated service efficiency of 80%, and meets appropriate ANSI performance tests. The model is adaptable to both water and space heating roles at its normal as well as elevated fuel input rates. The details of construction of the water heater and its performance characteristics are presented, along with those of other models that were built and tested. An earlier engineering model was successfully converted to stand-alone operation, that is, requiring no external power source, by modifying the control system to operate on a 12-V battery that was charged by a generator driven by the flow of exhaust gases. Many efforts to reduce production costs of components were also made. A conventional, commercially available submerged combustion chamber water heater was also successfully converted to operate on pulse combustion.

• Research Organization: American Gas Association Labs., Cleveland, OH
• OSTI ID: 6611642
• Report Number(s): PB-87-160578/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
034000 -- Natural Gas-- Combustion
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320106* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Equipment-- (1987-)
APPLIANCES
BUILDINGS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS APPLIANCES
GAS FUELS
GASES
HEATERS
NATURAL GAS
OXIDATION
PULSE COMBUSTION
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
WATER HEATERS